The price of folly

Read the article to see the example that cost one company thousands of dollars in a court decision, then think for a moment about how self-destructive it is to eschew the Oxford.

When you use a comma after the penultimate item in a series — A, B, and C — there will never be confusion or ambiguity. When you refuse to use that comma, you can never anticipate what kinds of distorted meanings can arise. You won’t see them coming till they’re out there, causing calamities like a devastating court decision.

Take one sample from the article. “I’d like to thank my parents, Mother Teresa and the pope.” Scandalous.

The pic above shows another merry mix-up. Who wants to imagine Stalin with pasties?

And it’s bogus if you’re an anti-Oxford type to say, “When there’s a possibility that the sentence will be…